Currently at the Memorial & Museum

Major Project Underway on Field of Empty Chairs

September 16, 2009

Beginning Monday, August 24th, a month long project will start on rewiring the Field of Empty Chairs. Public access to the footprint will be restricted to escorted family members, survivors and rescue workers. See the Executive Director’s Letter to family members for complete details.

Updates

September 16, 2009 The rewiring of the Field of Empty Chairs is underway and moving along well. The process will take a little longer due to the rain we have received in downtown Oklahoma City during the first 15 days of September. Each chair has to be moved to reach the wiring in the bottom of the chair and will be back in its place and working by the end of each day. The electrical upgrade will take place eight chairs at a time. We have chosen to do this complicated and tedious project in our non-peak season. Rewiring and resetting the chairs could take until mid-November to complete, but we will provide weekly updates on our Web site.
September 1, 2009 OESCO electricians finished wiring inside the new electrical supply vault so that a constant source of power is available as the chairs are lifted, rewired and replaced to light as beacons of hope each night. Before that process begins, new tension rods will be fabricated by Kimray, Inc., to fit inside each chair. While this work is done, no other activity will take place on the project. The fabrication of the tension rods will be complete within the next three weeks and Memorial staff and electricians will start the meticulous work of rewiring individual chairs in groups of eight. The Memorial will continue to update this page as work on the Field of Empty Chairs resumes.
August 31, 2009 OESCO electricians installed in the electrical supply vault the 21 drivers that provide electricity to the Field of Empty Chairs. Locating the drivers in this dry and secure place will reduce the frequency of maintenence and repairs. A photo cell switch, which controls the lights at dawn and dusk to ensure the chairs are lighted each night, was also installed.
August 28, 2009 Today workers are roughing in the lighting controls in the new electrical supply vault. The Field of Empty Chairs will not see much change over the next three weeks while Kimray, Inc., fabricates new stainless steel tension rods to house the new wiring in each chair. The fabrication of the rods is being donated to the Memorial by Kimray, a gift worth $25,000.
August 27, 2009 Progress remains steady on the Field of Empty Chairs project. Today, a crew from the Oklahoma Electrical Supply Company began the installation of the distribution panel, new conduit for wiring, and tied the feeder conduit into the electrical vault.
August 26, 2009 Trenching on the footprint of the Alfred P. Murrah Building to lay new conduit for the rewiring of the Field of Empty Chairs will be complete today. In addition to the grounds work being done, core drilling for access to electrical supply for the new wiring will be finished by the end of the day.
August 25, 2009 Trenching continues on the Field of Empty Chairs, with the first of three trenches leading north and south being dug to hold conduit for new wiring to chairs on the east end of the footprint.
August 24, 2009 A crew from Oakley’s Inc., Landscape and Maintenance Contractors, digs trenches by hand for new conduit as part of the rewiring of the Field of Empty Chairs. The new wiring replaces 10-year-old wiring, with technological improvements that will result in less maintenance, longer lasting effectiveness and less disruption to the footprint and to the visitors on the site. The project is being overseen by Project Manager Gabriel Taylor, who was also involved in the original construction of both the Memorial and Museum.

View the following video for a message from the Executive Director of the Oklahoma City
National Memorial & Museum.

« Back to Currently at the Memorial & Museum | Archived Currently at the Memorial & Museum »